Han Solo - TLC - Basic (BD 1)

With the help of his friends, Han has freed himself from Jabba the Hutt and a grisly death in the Sarlacc Pit. As he and his companions walk through the desert to the Millennium Falcon, they must fight their way through a fierce Tatooine sandstorm.

The very first figure in The Legacy Collection was a bit of a disappointment for us. Don't get us wrong, we were thrilled to finally have three figures from that most elusive deleted sandstorm scene from Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi, but the final product in this case just didn't come out that great. Han Solo is super-articulated, but you'd be surprised that this does very little for his overall aesthetic. It doesn't help him stand up any better and no matter how much we 'play' with him, he just won't stand in a natural pose. And though we truly do intend not to pontificate here, this is really just the start of the problems. This action figure suffers from a disproportionate frame because he has a large barrel chest coupled with very skinny (and almost pre-positioned) legs. Additionally, his arms are nearly impossible to lay flat against his body so his arms constantly remain at a bizarre 20 degree angle. In an age when Hasbro's standards are exceptionally high, we don't understand why they let this egregious error slip by and release a figure with this big of a weakness. And while you're ready to ask if the problems stop here, we unfortunately have to answer that question with a resounding 'no'. His head joint is rendered useless because of his scarf severely limiting any movement and it will pop off if it is attempted to be twisted or turned. This again is completely unacceptable, especially for action figures that cost over $8.00 after tax now.

There are however, some good points to this figure. His coloring is spot on and although some additional dirty marks would have made him perfect, his scarf looks good enough to overlook the mostly clean figure. After being sandblasted by the storm, Han Solo should be anything but clean-looking. And even though Hasbro started off making this figure with a fairly good template (the 2006 VTSC Han Solo (In Trench Coat) figure), it didn't translate well into this figure. If you remember, the 2006 figure didn't look that great either once his trench coat was removed as his legs were much to thin for his body among other issues. Han Solo's new head sculpt is not terrible, but we're not sure if it has the best expression we have received of the character. There have certainly been worse Han Solo head sculpts in the past, so we can't be too critical about this one except that he looks a little confused. We will however be very critical about his waist joint. It is just plain annoying. It is very loose (on our sample) and it seems that is should move at the belt line, but it doesn't. And when you turn Han over to view his back, there is a big hole visible from the rear due to the inherent nature of the joint. It only disappears when he is bent to lean back at a very awkward angle. This is quite a shame. It may be worth your while to see if the head scarf on this figure would look better on the VTSC Han Solo (In Trench Coat) figure because that one is definitely the superior figure.

While this review may make this figure seem ultimately paltry, this is not our intent. Han Solo just has more rough spots and issues than pleasures and it truly seems that Hasbro rushed this one a bit. But we would be remiss to not mention that this figure has merit because it gives us a long-awaited interpretation of Han Solo from a deleted scene in Return Of The Jedi. It should have been a figure that excited us. Hasbro has brought us so many better figures than this one and while we see the need for retools, perhaps each figure needs to be revisited case by case for a longer period of time to see if quality will be sacrificed for cost. Many other figures have been retooled here and there is the basic line and they have successfully been improved upon from their original releases. Many examples come to mind, especially those that are in 2006's The Saga Collection. While this Han Solo figure is below the caliber (by this we mean quality and not articulation) we expect today from Hasbro, you will definitely want to purchase him if you are a fan of novelty and obscure character choices. He sold quite well, so apparently he was popular with collectors, but popularity doesn't imply the best possible made figure. But usually if the Han Solo name is stamped on a packaged, it is nearly a guaranteed sell anyhow. Likely to never be revisited, this may just be the best deleted scene version of Han Solo we may ever receive.